MovieMartyr.com - Rosemary's Baby

Surely one of the best horror films ever made, Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby is so internally frenzied that it feels like an extended fever dream. In some ways it’s some of the most sadistic black comedy imaginable, and the way that the film gradually turns its heroine’s fears about her pregnancy and relationship into reality has an almost poetic justice. Rosemary creates some bad karma, and it’s only natural that the unfounded suspicions that she has come back to haunt her when her wildest fantasies turn out to be true. Anchored by a brilliant and naturalistic performance by Mia Farrow as Rosemary, the film is one of the director’s best. Even if its goals are relatively modest when compared to the director’s towering Chinatown, it’s almost as effective a genre piece. Its setting of unspeakable evils in the sterile home environment is a theme also visible in his quite similar Repulsion, but in typical American fashion the horrors here are much more overt than in that European film.

Perhaps one of the greatest pleasures of the film is that since it so determinedly fixes itself to Rosemary’s point of view, it allows her character to be genuinely perceptive and intelligent. It’s not far into the film that she begins to be distrustful of her neighbors, and her actions have a sense of logic behind them that’s far greater than you usually find in a horror movie. A lot of this might be because Farrow really seems to think before she speaks. Her childish face belies the cunning mind behind it, and the performance uses that time and again to its advantage, and when she wants to appear completely vulnerable, she has no problem pulling that off either. Still, there’s no doubt that Polanski deserves the bulk of the credit here. His direction seems to expand the confines of the film, which is mostly set in one apartment, to the point that Rosemary’s perception of things suggests an entire corrupt world. Filled with several inventive visual metaphors that often echo the protagonist’s state of mind and a surprisingly astute use of color, this is top-notch stuff. Though the film doesn’t often use shock techniques, the overall mood is exceptionally creepy. Since we genuinely like Rosemary, the film’s slow boil toward its inevitable denouement is almost unbearable. Ultimately, Rosemary’s Baby is a finely modulated a horror film you’re likely to come across.

**** Masterpiece

01/20/02

Jeremy Heilman